Gotta Catch 'Em All [James]

[Devon Shaffer]

Instead of following her normal weekend routine of working and then holing herself up in her tiny apartment playing video games all night, Devi decided to switch things up a little bit. She took the weekend off work and packed up her car for a little trip down to the lake. It had been a little while since she'd last been and she'd always had a bit of a soft spot for Pilot Ridge. It was such a quaint little town.

But of course she couldn't leave for a day without some sort of portable entertainment, so she'd thrown her 3DS and PSP into the passenger seat before heading out.

Upon arriving, she toted her stuff down to the shore and laid out her blanket. It took her all of five minutes of getting comfortable before she was opening up her DS and turning on Pokemon White. Perhaps she was being a little antisocial, but Devi figured she had accomplished enough by not being a hermit for a day. So she toed off her flipflops, propped herself up on her elbows, and prepared to take on the next gym leader.

She was humming the Pokemon theme to herself when she finally looked up at her surroundings. There were children, running and laughing, people were swimming, playing, and then there was a guy who was drawing. He was a bit farther down from her, but if she squinted she could watch what he was drawing.

Now, Devi wasn't really good in social situations, but she figured that of all the people she could approach, he seemed like the best option. Pushing her sunglasses up on her head, she folded her 3DS closed and walked over to him. "Uh, hi there." She smiled cheerfully. "I saw you drawing, it looks awesome." That wasn't so awkward, was it?

[James Zect]

James was sitting at the lake, debating whether or not he should put the money forward to get a spot on the pier doing caricatures and portraits and things like that. He wouldn't have to take the bus now, but maybe he should focus on finding a job around town rather than getting something that barely paid for itself he could only do a couple of times a month. Although, now that he wasn't in school year round he supposed that he could go ahead and head there more often... but still. He had a Summer course and he didn't know if he wanted to do it again.

He seemed to be spending a lot of time here lately. It was quiet, and he didn't get bothered too much. People watching was fairly easy at the lake since they weren't paying that much attention to people watching them, or they were expecting people to be looking at them. He only needed a couple of looks for what he was doing. For right now though, he wasn't doing a sketch of someone, he was finishing one he'd started earlier. He looked at it for a moment, thinking that he might even attempt to put some color into this one.

The image was of a tiger, snarling and preparing to leap out of the page. There was a scar around its left eye, and it was surrounded by an aura of flame. He was still working on some of the details of the drawing and then he'd go through the effort of ruining it when he went to add color. Maybe he'd work on that this Summer... he could do quick color for the caricatures and stuff like that but for anything detailed he pretty much just went ahead and destroyed the picture.

He didn't notice the girl approaching as he opened up a fresh bottle of cream soda, draining the bottle in one go. He was going to have all kinds of health problems when he was older, he just knew it. But the metabolism part of his power kinda meant he had to eat and drink a lot of junk to keep himself from wasting away. If he was a normal person he'd probably be 300 pounds, if he ate the same level of crap he did now.

He set the bottle back down in the sand next to two of the other bottles from the six pack that was sitting in his bag. When the girl finally made it over to him and talked to him, he froze for a second. But, he stopped and let out a deep breath, he needed to be more social and get out. He wasn't anywhere near where he wanted to be, but he guessed he was getting a little more towards his goal anyway. Still, if he got anywhere near a stage he'd probably have a major heart attack.

"Oh... uh... thanks," he said. Well, wasn't that articulate. Maybe if he put on the business face? Sure he usually wore the Reaper mask when he was doing the caricatures and stuff, but maybe he could pull it off without it? He really hoped so. "Um... do you want a caricature or something? I could use the practice for the 4th of July festival." He usually did something small at that little thing, so maybe he'd just do that instead of going through the effort of driving back and forth from the pier.

[Devon Shaffer]

While Devi was a little bit uncomfortable in certain social situations, she wouldn't consider herself shy or even introverted. In the company of the right people, she was loud and obnoxious and would do anything for a laugh. But she was absolutely one-hundred percent shit when it came to meeting new people outside of video games. Her preferences might have been a little skewed though, considering she'd pick a night in with her sugar gliders and PS3 over going out to a club. And the only parties she got excited over were the ones she joined in MMO's. But she was trying hard to be more sociable, it was about time she made friends that were not online.

When he stuttered a little, she felt somewhat better. It was almost like a shared moment of awkwardness. Hey, she'd take what she could get. “Sorry if I startled you. I just... uh, yeah...” Eloquence had never been something that Devon possessed.

Her eyes shifted focus, looking at the drawing again because she could appreciate the detail he'd put into it much better from this distance. (And also probably because it was a little easier than making eye contact.) Not wanting to seem rude, though, she looked back to him when he spoke again. “You do caricatures too? That's awesome.” Laughing softly, she cocked her head to the side. “The best I can draw is stick people.”

It was then that she seemed to remember her manners. “I'm Devon, by the way. If I interrupted you or anything, you can totally tell me to piss off or something. Promise it won't hurt my delicate little girl feelings!” She giggled, tucking her hair behind her ear.